Apple Received Free Advertising in 42% of Movies in 2011

The bitter courtroom battle[1] between Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL[2]) and Samsung has brought attention to Apple’s marketing prowess.

Since the Apple is trying to prove that Samsung’s creation and marketing of its Galaxy line infringes on Apple’s patents and trademarks for the iPhone and iPad, the tech giant of all tech giants testified about its myriad marketing practices, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

One fun-fact revealed is that Apple gets a lot of free advertising opportunities courtesy of big-time Hollywood producers. A study released earlier this year[3] by Brandchannel showed that Apple-branded products were seen in 42.5% of the top 40 films of 2011. Apple’s iconic logo also appeared in more than a third of all box-office smashes from 2001 through 2011.

To bring those numbers into perspective, Apple products received more free (Apple is adamant that is does not pay for product placement) placement time in Hollywood’s biggest films in the past decade than McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD[4]), Pepsi (NYSE:PEP[5]) and the Sony (NYSE:SNE[6]) Vaio combined.

According to data from Front Row Analytics[7], Apple received more than $23 million alone in free product placement time in the last installment of Mission Impossible.

Here’s a rundown of the estimated value of Apple product placement in eight major films.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol: $23,548,020

No Strings Attached: $5,901,292

Diary of a Wimpy Kid:$5,795,265

Little Fockers: $4,068,043

Rise of the Planet of the Apes: $4,062,157

Transformers: Dark of the Moon: $3,040,437

Green Lantern: $1,557,903

Fast Five: $967,025

Apple isn’t the only company that makes out big with free product placement. A plethora of movie characters have been seen using or consuming products from Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO[8]), Dell (NASDAQ:DELL[9]), Ford Motor (NYSE:F[10]) and other major companies.